Would your clients like to have multiple versions of PHP?

[steve]

Yes! This would allow me to convert all my servers running HIVE to CL. The clients on the HIVE servers really appreciate being able to switch between PHP versions, and overriding the PHP defaults.

[clm]

This would be a very nice feature.

I know cPanel is preparing EA4 which will include RPM versions of PHP…

We are looking into php-fpm ( (FastCGI Process Manager) at the moment (cPanel are waiting for PHP 5.4.1 before starting work on this).

[b.borislavov]

For sure customers should be able to edit php.ini and choose the version and the extensions, because with shared services we have customers with different applications, different needs and different visions, but they share the same environment. The only way to provide customer satisfaction, without causing problems with other applications you need different PHPs at least!

[peter.abraham]

Total cost of management includes support; so one version keeps support and administrative overhead lower.

[iseletsk]

Yes, it will be an icon they would click, select version of PHP, and optionally php extensions they want to run.

[john]

It sounds like a great idea. Would this become a feature they change in cPanel?

Thanks for everything, CloudLinux has really improved our server security and stability!

[catalin]

Now that we have CageFS & proper namespaces, it is very easy for us to add ability for the customer to choose which version of PHP to run.
We can offer customer php 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 as well as "Latest beta" version. That would require suPHP, php as CGI or mod_fcgid. Beyond that requirement, it would work with pretty much any control panel.
Customer would be able to select PHP version that they want, as well as list of extensions (we can include pretty much everything to satisfy anyone).
We can even allow customer to edit php.ini

That would be in addition to "default/system" PHP.

I have heard a lot of people saying that they want to have it. Yet, some hosting companies voices that they don want it, as it would create a lot of new support questions, and they are afraid it would be a support nightmare.

What do you think? Is that something you would like to have? Do you see any potential issues we should consider?